Rentals up here frequently come with a woodstove or a fireplace. Using one is ordinary, and it puts a tenant closer to the cause of a fire than almost anything else in a home.
A fire you cause is your liability, and the building is not yours. That is the serious half.
Three things about heating with fire.
If a fire starts from improper use of a stove, the building owner’s insurer pays the owner and then seeks recovery from whoever caused it. The building is worth far more than everything you own, and the liability section of your renters policy is the only thing between you and that figure.
Chimney cleaning, flue condition and stove maintenance are typically the owner’s responsibility, and the day-to-day use is yours. Where the lease is silent, the argument after a fire is about exactly that line. Asking in writing who sweeps the chimney is a reasonable thing to do.
Ash removed into a plastic bin or onto a wooden deck is a classic cause of a serious fire hours later. It is the most avoidable version of this claim and it is entirely in the tenant’s hands.
Liability sized for the building, not the furniture.
It faces the cost of the building, which dwarfs your contents.
Some carriers ask, and it is better answered than discovered.
Worth getting in writing from the owner.
Tell us whether the rental has a woodstove and what the liability limit is now.
We set liability against the building you could burn, not your sofa.
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